Friends of President Zelensky seized the largest deposits of copper and amber
Timur Mindych's company will have the ability to generate UAH 2 billion annually.
Nashi Groshi reports that the communal enterprise Volynprirodresurs, established with the help of Igor Palitsa, focuses on amber extraction and has a turnover of over a billion a year. The company of Timur Mindych, an associate of Igor Kolomoisky and a close friend of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has laid claim to the communal enterprise, according to ZN.ua.
On December 24, the deputies of the Volyn Regional Council supported the reorganization of Volynprirodresurs into a joint-stock company. The reorganization commission must handle creditors' claims within two months. Following that, a private owner will take over the PJSC with the largest amber production and the biggest copper deposit in Europe.
The official reason for transforming the communal enterprise into a joint-stock company is to attract potential investors. They also mention the native copper deposit in Zhirichi, which is seen as one of the most promising in Europe. The estimated copper reserves of the deposit are around one million tons. It is noted that a ton of copper on the London Stock Exchange costs about $10,000. However, the project requires investments of around half a billion dollars.
In fact, the copper project may not come to fruition for several years. It's more likely that they will expand the amber business instead.
Prior to the reorganization of Volynprirodresurs, there were reports that the Kiev-based Izumrud Plant LLC demanded repayment of a debt of UAH 62 million from public utilities. The latter received this money in 2017 to pay the State Geonadras for special permits.
Timur Mindich, the beneficial owner of the Izumrud Plant, is also a co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio and a business partner of Kolomoisky. It was at Mindich's apartment in Kiev that Zelensky celebrated his birthday a year ago.
Timur Mindich
In 2017, the former head of the Volyn Regional Council, Igor Palitsa, stated that “The Izumrud Plant loaned money without interest, but for future products at current year prices. At that moment, the plans were to start production in September, but the project was three years late. Prices for amber have also fallen three times over the years.
It is indicated that the reorganization of “Volynprirodresurs” is carried out exactly when the Mace headed the party “For Future”. Representatives of the latter in the Verkhovna Rada vote synchronously with the mono-majority of the “servants of the people”.
The enterprise itself has four special permits for the extraction of amber and one for the extraction of copper ores. Volynprirodresurs received all these permits for 51,000 hectares in one day in February 2017. On the same day, the enterprise received without competition four more special permits for peat extraction on 9,000 hectares. A month later, in the same way, a special permit was obtained for the extraction of native copper ores at the Zhirichi deposit. All the time, the enterprise indicated the conduct of preliminary geo-exploration at these deposits as the basis for issuing a special permit.
One week after getting 51,000 hectares of amber deposits, the Prosecutor General's Office started investigating a possible conspiracy involving officials of the State Geocadastre and the communal services of Palitsa. They also wanted to know where the utility got the money for special permits. However, they couldn't find the company's accounting department during the searches in the KP office in Lutsk.
Later, the prosecutor's office opened a file to cancel the special permits issued to Volynprodresurs. However, they first delayed the appeal, and then the criminal investigation disappeared from public access. There is no information about it in the court register.
In October 2018, the Security Service also opened a case. It was alleged that the documents for obtaining special permits underestimated the explored volumes of minerals. As a result, Volynprodresurs paid only UAH 60 million instead of UAH 600 million to the budget. Law enforcement officers claimed that the explored reserves were falsified in agreement with the head of the regional council, who was Igor Palitsa at the time. The latest court ruling was on the eve of the presidential elections in March 2019, which were won by Vladimir Zelensky.
Volynprodresurs began preparing for work after resolving issues with the Prosecutor General's Office. In early September 2020, the company mined the first kilograms of amber and hired a contractor, LLC Nadrovydobuvannya. According to Volyn media, the profit from the sold production is split 50% to 50%.
The plant where amber is processed is in the use of the general contractor, but does not belong to him. Anatoly Kapustyuk, the current director of Volynprodresurs, is listed as the owner of the plant and the land under it in the village of Prilesnoye. He became the head of the KP when real production started, and before that, he was the deputy. According to Kapustiuk's declaration, Nadrovydobuvannya paid him about UAH 678,000.
The current owner of 'Nadrovydobuvannya' is Viktor Klepko. Last year, the owner was Igor Khomin, Kapustyuk's former business partner in Amber-invest LLC. In August 2020, Khomin gave Kapustiuk his share in the authorized capital of this company, which amounted to UAH 5 million.
Before the regional council voted for the reorganization of Volynprodresurs, Kapustyuk mentioned that 6.5 thousand tons of amber had been mined and sold in 2021. He also stated that amber was sold for UAH 97 million during this period. Based on calculations, the average cost of a kilogram of amber for public utilities was about 15 thousand UAH.
This is roughly $560, the actual cost of amber on the market in the last couple of years.
